[FIN] Oh My Ow! (Ebha & Sedare)

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It was not at all an uncommon sight: a small, pink and white cub practicing combat movements. She was quite good for her age, but anyone familiar with the pride in which she lived would be rather unsurprised, given the color of her fur. After all, Sedare was one of Mittere's children, and no one expected anything less of the Master Warrior. True, they might hope for less, but not where Mittere could hear them.

Sedare herself was damned proud of her ancestry and couldn't wait to prove it to the world. The Bards said that Mother had come from distant lands (Mittere rarely spoke about the world outside the Kitwana'antara, save to stress how important it was to defend their home) and that she'd been a warrior of no small skill. Hell, she had the disease, but you couldn't tell by looking at her! The young lioness was proud to be the Master Warrior's daughter and intended to be every bit as worthy of that as she could. She'd be the second best Warrior in the pride after her mother!

So the young lion practiced daily, not just in the sessions Mittere had organized for her children, but in every spare moment the cub could find. Her movements were energetic, even though she'd been at this for well over an hour, and if they weren't graceful or refined, that skill would come in time. Regardless, Sedare was focused on her task, oblivious to the world around her.  

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It was difficult to not realize such a bright lioness was standing nearby and watching, but Sedare managed to be completely oblivious. It wasn't just an audience that she was failing to take note of, however. Her movements were carrying her persistently in one direction, off of the flat area in which she'd been working and onto more uneven ground.

Then it happened. The cub was trying to do a more complex series of motions and the leg she'd been using for balance slipped on an unexpected pebble. The entire left foreleg slipped out from under Sedare's body and landed at an entirely unnatural angle.

The rest of her body wasn't immune to the accident, and the young lioness found herself flat on her stomach with the breath driven out of her body with a "humph!" as well as the twin shocks of her unexpected impact with the ground and her broken leg.

Blue eyes teared up as the pain began to penetrate through the fog of shock, but Sedare was still too startled to even make a sound.  

[mouselet]

The grownup's presence registered about the same time as the pain, and the tears in Sedare's eyes overflowed and began to soak her cheeks. Tears weren't the only things coming out, however...

"Bloody stupid pooping idiotic cowardly unskilled crazy moronic half-witted boneheaded thing to do!" the pink cub spat. It was clear from her tone that the only reason she didn't use any real curse words was because she simply hadn't learned them yet. The attitude and intent was obviously the same.

Sedare's breath hissed in and out through her teeth as she tried to cope with the pain and crane her neck to look at the lioness at the same time.

"I...know," she answered, gritting her teeth. Her tone made the subtext "well, duh!" quite loud.  

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Sedare eyed the older lioness suspiciously. Or rather, it would have been a suspicious look if she hadn't been crying from the pain. So the expression turned out rather more frustrated and petulant than the cub would have preferred. Luckily, she couldn't see her own face and so didn't know how spectacularly she had failed in that respect.

"My...stomach...paws...chest..." she managed to gasp out a list of other places that hurt. Her stomach would almost certainly have a big bruise from that fall and she'd scraped her paw pads bloody scrabbling around as she had tried to regain her balance on the way down. Her chest because she was having a hard time getting full breaths as the pain kept forcing the air from her body.

She desperately wanted to lash out at something - anything! - in vengeance for this embarrasment and setback. But she couldn't even begin to pull her paws back beneath her, so how could she think about striking out? The tears of pain were joined by more tears of anger and frustration.  

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The cub glared up through the tears at the adult who was being so useless and yet telling her what to do. Of course she was calm! How could she be anything else with a broken leg and assortment of other injuries, aches, and pains? Sedare bared her little fangs, hissing the air in and out of her mouth as she tried to do as instructed.

After all, grownups did generally know what they were doing when they told you to do something. And Mother had made it clear that they were supposed to obey grownups, even if they thought said adults were stupid. Because if they didn't, she'd do worse than clout you. She'd use you as the demonstration in her next lesson.

This...gave Sedare a good motivation to do as she was told. Deep breaths. In and out. Try to ignore the pain that was overwhelming her every thought.

Was it working yet?  

[mouselet]

"F-fine," Sedare forced the word out through her teeth, still attempting to glare through her tears. She clung to her anger because if she wasn't angry, the cub suspected she'd be terrified. Either way, there was an incredible amount of pain and she had a sinking suspicion that there would be even more pain to come in the very near future, as the adult lioness was talking about having to move her.

She knew that she'd have to be moved at some point as this was clearly not her mother's den, but that didn't mean she couldn't dread it!